Unhopeme – a bilingual litany and poem by Mario Mieli
He cherished the hope of building an invisible tower in the mountain.
ESPERANÇA
He cherished the hope of fishing a piece of dark wood out of the river and of calling it a Saint.
FORAM ME CHAMAR. EU ESTOU AQUI. QUE É QUE HÁ?
He cherished the hope of feeling the claim of the Absolute in everything he did.
ESPERANÇA
He cherished the hope of speeding his chase to nowhere.
QUEM TE VIU E QUEM TV?
He cherished the hope of not taking the following morning sun for granted.
ESPERANÇA
He cherished the hope of feeling the whole forest through the few seeds he was holding in his hands.
QUEM TE DESVENDA E QUEM TE DIZ VENDE?
He cherished the hope of being immune to the thousand marketing images he was exposed to every day.
ESPERANÇA
He cherished the hope of Krishnamurti’s ‘freedom from the desire for an answer’ as essential in the ‘understanding of a problem’.
QUEM DIZ DEVOTOS E QUEM DIZ DÊ VOTOS?
He cherished the hope of not having any goal, any purpose.
ESPERANÇA
He cherished the hope of collecting every hope abandoned by those who entered.
QUEM TE DIS-PUTA E QUEM TE COM-PUTA?
He cherished the hope of disdaining all those who internalize the current power structure.
ESPERANÇA
He cherished the hope of redeeming all the points and hopes from his Present and Previous Life’s Miles Program.
QUEM SÃO TEUS COMPULSIVOS REPULSIVOS?
He cherished the hope of steering clear of the kind of hope as claimed by the market.
ESPERANÇA
He cherished the hope of giving up hope.
OH MANTEEIRA, MANTREEIRA, MADROEIRA
EM QUE MANTA SEGREDAS TEU MANTRA?
He cherished the hope of not having any hope at all.
written for Regina Vater’s 1999 Texas installation.
